Established in 1942, MCAS Camp Pendleton is located north of and parallel to Vandegrift Road in Area 23. The air station currently maintains and operates facilities designed to support flight operations of a Marine aircraft wing, a Marine reserve aircraft wing, a Marine expeditionary force, as well as commanding training in the Camp Pendleton air-ground training complex. It provides air traffic control services and facilities, aircraft fire fighting and rescue services, weather service support to Camp Pendleton, and hot and cold refueling and defueling. It encompasses 410 acres, including a 6,000-foot runway, taxiways, and parking aprons. MCAS Camp Pendleton is also known as Munn Field, named after Lt. Gen. John C. (Toby) Munn, a distinguished Marine aviator who served from 1927 to 1964. The airfield was initially used to train Marine aviators during World War II. It functioned as a secondary runway for the much larger MCAS El Toro, and as a dispersal field in the case of attack. With the helicopter came the concepts of “vertical envelopment” and “vertical assault”. Supporting these new concepts then became the prime role of the Station. The first helicopters were assigned to the Station in the spring of 1956 and it has been principally a helicopter station ever since. Throughout the 1990s and into the new millennium, the Air Station’s squadrons have deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, and Japan. Additionally, following various Base Re-Alignments and Closures (BRAC) in the 1990s, the Air Station has become considerably more active in operational terms and ever more vital to the future of Marine aviation. As the integral fifth element of the Marine Air Ground Task Force, MCAS Camp Pendleton will continue to be a force in readiness capable of providing aviation ground support to a variety of operational forces.
